Shock drying plywood - good idea?

I

Ingebrigt

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Hi! I have finaly got to the stage where I can start to build some cabinets for my future shop. I've had some plywood lying around for this a long time. The problem is that I think it have absorbed alot of moisture, after sitting in my garage with high humidity (it feels heavy).  [unsure]

Will the plywood warp/shrink noticably if I dry it infront of the fireplace? And is it realistic to get it dry enough so that I can cut it to lenght tomorrow, and paint it on Sunday?
 
Put it in the room but not in front of the fire place.  And give it some time.

Peter
 
Do you have access to a moisture meter so at least you have some idea as to how wet the lumber is? 
Without knowing how wet the lumber is you have no idea what you're up against and what you need to do.

At any rate, putting this project on the 2-day fast track may not be the best approach at this point. I'm sure it took longer than 2 days for the wood to absorb the moisture, so it will likely take longer than 2 days for the wood to give up its moisture.
 
Is getting new ply out of the question?  Unless it is high end stuff or too far to go get new stuff, I would go pick some "fresh" stuff up.

Cheers. Bryan.
 
Is the ply bowed?

If the pieces are clamped or restrained then they should dry OK.
So are those pieces getting assembled into some cabinet then they should 'dry' and retain a cube shape.
If they are shelves, then you may wish to cut them and dry them on boards with a weight to hold them flat.

The fact that they are ply means that they have balanced layers of grain running both ways, so the warpage should not happen.
If they are wet and warped, then they are 'stuffed'.

Assuming that they are to be used a shelves/planks, then I would think cutting them and then making sure that they are 'dry' is safest, and then paint them. If they seem dry or the paint contains water, then maybe just slap the paint on them.
The main issue I could see is if the does not like water, and they blister from the moisture in the plywood.

But these are just guesses.
 
Starting a project with suspect material can be very dissatisfying! [sad]

How many sheets are we talking about?

A sheet of ply that's become seriously damp can take on some interesting shapes as it dries! (depending on construction, thickness, etc).

Can you at least relegate the majority of the suspect material to unimportant panels (backing, etc) and supplement it with some reliable materials?
 
Kev said:
Starting a project with suspect material can be very dissatisfying! [sad]

How many sheets are we talking about?

A sheet of ply that's become seriously damp can take on some interesting shapes as it dries! (depending on construction, thickness, etc).

Can you at least relegate the majority of the suspect material to unimportant panels (backing, etc) and supplement it with some reliable materials?
Click to expand...

I agree, if you are going to invest a lot of time in a project, you don't want to be messing around with warped sheets unless you can work around the damage, what sort of money are we talking about to re stock with new ply.
 
It's two big sheets, one 12 and one 14 mm thick. The price for the sheets was more then 1000 NOK (approximately £100), and after spending way to much on tools I don't feel like buying new sheets that will have to sit in the same garage. And Im sure my gf wont be to happy with our living room being full of plywood over a long period either.

So I took the chance yesterday and set the to dry in front of the fireplace, closed the door to the room, and started the dehumidifier. The biggest sheet of 12 mm ply has warped a little, but the rest (I have already rough cut it) have very little to no warping. Maybe they weren't as moist as I thought, but Im most worried about trapping the moisture when painting them.
 
Ingebrigt said:
It's two big sheets, one 12 and one 14 mm thick. The price for the sheets was more then 1000 NOK (approximately £100), and after spending way to much on tools I don't feel like buying new sheets that will have to sit in the same garage. And Im sure my gf wont be to happy with our living room being full of plywood over a long period either.

So I took the chance yesterday and set the to dry in front of the fireplace, closed the door to the room, and started the dehumidifier. The biggest sheet of 12 mm ply has warped a little, but the rest (I have already rough cut it) have very little to no warping. Maybe they weren't as moist as I thought, but Im most worried about trapping the moisture when painting them.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about trapping it .. it'll find it's way out [huh] [sad]
 
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